Get-tough policies fail in war against drugs

So readers advacate even more draconian measures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... rtComments

Solve this problem overnight. Ban any drug addict access to free NHS treatment. Make it illegal for any taxpayer money to be spent on anything to do with illegal drug taking. This hasn't been tried so let's give it a go. We might then have money left over to spend. Every drug addict has the same choice as me. I choose not to use illegal drugs, so my taxes should not be used to make life easy for those who BECOME DRUG ADDICTS.

- Keith Jones, Hartlepool, Cleveland

Yes matew when you get mugged or your house get broken into by a addict ..you ll wish the UK had a free heroin program backed by the nhs

Lock all drug users and pushers up and keep them in solitary confinement until they are clean from the drug and if that takes a lifetime then so be it.

- John, Surrey

Leaches cure cancer aswell john you plank...and are prisons are full up anyway and are like the Hilton...

Two points: Firstly, we do not and never have had a "get tough" drugs policy. Mandatory death sentence for drug pushers is tough, being locked up with other users and an apparently endless supply of drugs doesn't seem tough to me.

Secondly, given that our Police will do anything to avoid offending our ethnic cousins, the fact that "Enforcement action has a "disproportionate" impact on certain ethnic communities, notably black people, who are arrested and imprisoned for drug offences at higher rates than white" might suggest to the simple minded such as I that these people are at the root of the problem!

- Tony, Doha, Qatar

Ethnic cousins??????? so drugs are the fault of blacks and asians...words fail me..

Make all drugs legal and regulated. Many drug deaths are due to impurities cut into the drugs to bulk them up. Trials have been done and proved successful. A lot of drug addicts get others hooked so they can sell to them and pay for there own addiction. Legalisation would break this cycle, and also a lot of the crime associated with drug use. It would also allow addicts to get jobs and lead a relatively normal life.

We have been loosing the drugs war since 1968, at great expense. Should we fight on for another 39?

- N, Stoke, UK
One sensible comment get through in the name of fair and balanced reporting...

Who the fuck is Tony quoting?

Surveys consistently show that per capita the ethnic group which is most likely to take illegal drugs is the caucasians.

I don't know whether what he says here is true, but if it is it just exposes the fact that black people are much more likely to be subjected to stop-and-search than any other group.

Brings to mind the old Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch:

"He's a villain, Sir, and a jailbird."
"Only because you keep bringing him in here on these ridiculous trumped-up charges, Constable Savage!"

Is Mr codogo a coloured gentlemen Savage?
Cant say I ve noticed sir...

Did they not also arrest someone for having "dark curly hair and thick lips" in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace?

Or am I thinking of Python?

You mean this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZoSqPxsNtU

Not really related , but a bit of a gem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFlNyqeeifA

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffa ... 36,00.html

It's from a report, as far as I can tell. I haven't got the energy to read through it, but I think the quote is from a report.

jack

nope, that was Not the Nine O'clock News.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1774

I'll come back to that latter.
Sorry, what Im I doing. Im in two minds whether to go out, no your not, yes I am. Oh forget it, because I have.

Mind-altering drug in 'altering mind' sensation.

In other news: Organic waste found in North American woodland confirmed as being ursine faecal matter.

actually i'm surprised that that many (2 so far) comments in support of legalisation got through

Why are they rehashing this? We all know there is a correlation between people that smoke cannabis and people that have mental illness.

We don't know whether smoking cannabis leads to mental illness, or whether mental illness leads to smoking cannabis. It could be that cannabis triggers mental illness, or it could be that people with mental illness use cannabis to control it.

Or it could be a coincidence. People with mental illness are on the periphery of society, and so are people that break drug laws. Is it so surprising that the two groups might overlap?

They are wasting their time reporting on this old study, but I bet we don't see a report on this new study: Cannabis chemical curbs psychotic symptoms, study finds

Boom boom!

Reading the Guardian article, it says that THC is a trigger for schizophrenia, and that there is a correlation between the increased strength of modern cannabis and the increase of patients with psychotic tendencies. I think it's mainly suggesting that man's meddling with the plant has changed it from God's benign gift with a sense of yin/yang to something unbalanced and artificial.

It looks like they're both reporting on the same study with their own editorial bias to me.

There are a number of different studies. They are being presented in London as part of the International Cannabis and Mental Health Conference. The Mail just neglected to report on the CBD study by the University of Cologne.